The European Commission proposed a 40% GHG reduction, with a renewables target of 27% and lots of wriggle room. See also:

2014/01/22: EC: [links to several pdfs] Energy and climate goals for 2030
On 22 January 2014 the Commission proposed energy and climate objectives to be met by 2030. The objectives send a strong signal to the market, encouraging private investment in new pipelines and electricity networks or low-carbon technologies. The targets must be met if the EU is to keep its promise to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 80-95% by 2050.

2014/01/23: EUO: EU climate policy – too early to celebrate
There is no doubt that the European Commission’s decision to propose adopting a binding 40 percent greenhouse gas emission reduction by 2030 relative to 1990 is a victory for the greener side of EU politics. Chapeau! However, it is not yet the time to uncork the champagne bottles. Experience from recent years tells us that member states and parliament cannot necessarily be counted on to support an ambitious climate policy. Moreover, it will, at best, be in late 2015 that one can hope for the policy to be cast in stone in the form of formally agreed legislation. In the meantime much energy will be expended on watering down the proposals.

The World Economic Forum went down in Davos:

2014/01/24: RTCC: Davos delegates warned of imminent oil crisis
Some of the planet’s richest nations are to hear a warning that a global oil crisis could happen as early as next year A British businessman, Jeremy Leggett, will tell world leaders meeting in Switzerland today that it is dangerous to argue that fracking for shale oil and gas can help to avert a global energy crisis.

The World Future Energy Summit went down in Abu Dhabi this week:

2014/01/21: RTCC: World can double renewables share at low cost, says report
Renewable energy lobby says the world can double use of wind, solar and other low carbon sources A strong carbon price and removal of subsidies could help double the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix to 30% at almost no extra net cost, supporters of solar, wind and hydro told a clean energy summit today.

Another move in the potash wrangle came up this week:

2014/01/20: CBC: Uralkali inks Chinese potash deal at $305 a tonne
[…]
In its third quarter results last fall, PotashCorp revealed that the average price it received for a tonne of potash fell by more than a quarter to $307 a tonne, down from $429 a year ago. The original Uralkali agreement had set the floor price of potash at around $400 a tonne. The new deal is well below that but is nonetheless seen by some as positive news for potash as it sets a floor price and ending uncertainty.

The idea of California smothered in Chinese pollution seemed to catch on:

How is the German Energy Transition [Energiewende] doing?

2014/01/21: NYT: German Energy Official Sounds a Warning
Germany’s new energy minister on Tuesday struck a sobering tone about the country’s ambitious goals for making its energy sector more reliant on renewable sources, saying that rising costs risked losing public support and jeopardizing the powerful German industrial base. The minister, Sigmar Gabriel, in his first major policy speech, said at an annual energy conference organized by the publication Handelsblatt in Berlin that annual consumer costs for renewables of about 24 billion euros, or about $32.5 billion, were already pushing the limits of what the German economy, Europe’s most powerful, could handle. “We need to keep in mind that the whole economic future of our country is riding on this,” said Mr. Gabriel, who is responsible for the Energiewende, or energy transformation.

Various psychological angles arise in considerations of the ecological crisis:

It is evident that the Fukushima disaster is going to persist for some time. TEPCO says 6 to 9 months. The previous Japanese Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, said decades. Now the Japanese government is talking about 30 years. [Whoops, that has now been updated to 40 years.]
And the IAEA is now saying 40 years too.
[Now some people are talking about a century or more. Sealing it in concrete for 500 years.]
We’ll see.
At any rate this situation is not going to be resolved any time soon and deserves its own section.
Meanwhile…
It is very difficult to know for sure what is really going on at Fukushima. Between the company [TEPCO], the Japanese government, the Japanese regulator [NISA], the international monitor [IAEA], as well as independent analysts and commentators, there is a confusing mish-mash of information. One has to evaluate both the content and the source of propagated information.
How knowledgeable are they [about nuclear power and about Japan]?
Do they have an agenda?
Are they pro-nuclear or anti-nuclear?
Do they want to write a good news story?
Do they want to write a bad news story?
Where do they rate on a scale of sensationalism?
Where do they rate on a scale of play-it-down-ness?
One fundamental question I would like to see answered:
If the reactors are in meltdown, how can they be in cold shutdown?

Post Fukushima, nuclear policies are in flux around the world:

2014/01/21: BBerg: Tepco Wins Approval for Post-Disaster Plan to Rebuild
Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501) won the support of the government and banks for a plan to rebuild its business, the latest step in the recovery from the nuclear disaster three years ago that almost destroyed the company. The agreement between the utility, now under government control, and its biggest lenders includes more than 1 trillion yen ($9.6 billion) in cost cuts. The plan hinges on the restart of two reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant, the world’s biggest, as early as July. Most of the public oppose restarting Japan’s 48 reactors, which are all offline for safety checks.

As for the geopolitics of Arctic resources:

2014/01/23: Reuters: U.S. appeals court throws Arctic drilling into further doubt
Juneau, Alaska – A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that the U.S. Interior Department wrongly awarded offshore oil leases in the Chukchi Sea near Alaska in 2008 without considering the full range of environmental risks posed by drilling in the Arctic. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals shttp://www.noaa.gov/newsarchive.htmlent the on-going dispute – pitting environmental groups and Native Alaska tribes against the federal government and energy companies – back to U.S. District in Anchorage, Alaska. It was not immediately clear what the decision would mean for the oil company Royal Dutch Shell Plc and its plans, revealed in December, to resume exploratory drilling this coming summer in the Chukchi.

2014/01/21: G&M: New deal nears on ‘polar code’ to regulate Arctic shipping
Talks are accelerating on binding pollution and safety rules for shipping through Arctic waters, a long-delayed objective that could assuage Canadian concerns as climate change makes the Northwest Passage increasingly attractive to foreign vessels. A draft of this polar code should be completed shortly by members of the International Maritime Organization, a United Nations agency, and take effect as early as 2016, shipping associations in Norway and Canada predict. Russia’s Northern Sea Route and Canada’s Northwest Passage are two Arctic thoroughfares that can cut shipping time for foreign vessels travelling between Asia and Europe. Shrinking summer sea ice, a consequence of global warming, is expected to make transits through both routes easier in the decades ahead.

While in Antarctica:

2014/01/24: ABC(Au): ‘Global hub’ for Antarctic research opens in Hobart
The new home of Hobart’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) has been officially opened. It has been more than four years since the previous federal government committed to build the $45 million centre on the waterfront. The IMAS was federally-funded on land donated by the Tasmanian Government.

Regarding the genetic modification of food:

2014/01/24: BBC: ‘Fish oil’ GM plant trial application submitted
An application to conduct field trials of a genetically modified crop containing Omega-3 fatty acids normally found in oily fish has been submitted. If approved by the government, the trials could begin at Rothamsted Research agricultural institute in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, this year. The initial aim of the crop is to benefit the fish farming industry, the researchers said. But in a decade it could end up in food products, such as margarine.

2014/01/23: EurActiv: GMO activists stage protest outside Greenpeace’s Brussels office
GMO activists have launched a campaign to get EU approval for genetically engineered crops, staging a protest outside the Brussels office of environmental group Greenpeace today (23 January). The protesters gathered outside the Greenpeace offices in the heart of Brussels’ political centre at 11 a.m. and held up banners describing the environmental group’s position against GM crops as a “crime against humanity”. The protest was led by Patrick Moore…

2014/01/21: ABC(Au): Super typhoon victims flee again as rains flood southern Philippines
Emergency workers in the Philippines have evacuated thousands of people across the country’s south after three days of rain-flooded towns and farmland. Hundreds of the evacuees are still recovering after Super Typhoon Haiyan swept across the region in November, marking as one of the strongest storms ever to make landfall. Now, tropical depression Agaton is wrecking havoc on the eastern central island of Samar, destroying emergency shelters set up by the humanitarian agency Oxfam.

2014/01/20: Oxfam: Storms wreak havoc in typhoon-hit Philippines
Disaster on top of catastrophic disaster for millions displaced by Typhoon Haiyan, Oxfam warns Thousands of people have been evacuated from collapsed tents and fragile makeshift shelters or are living in flooded shelters in disaster hit areas of the Philippines after the six month rainy season turned into vicious storms this week.

2014/01/22: ABC(Au): Climate records for 2013 show no let-up in global warming trend
The Bureau of Meteorology says 2013 was Australia’s hottest on record, and data just released indicates the year was one of the hottest ever for the globe. US scientists say that for the 37th year in a row, last year’s global temperatures were above average. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says 2013 was the world’s fourth warmest on record.

As for Ocean Currents:

What’s new in Biodiversity?

2014/01/23: BBC: Plant-killing fungi ‘drive rainforest biodiversity’
Pathogenic fungi, normally associated with killing plant life, could play a key role in driving biodiversity in tropical rainforests, a study suggests. Researchers found that the presence of fungal pathogens limited the growth of dominant species, allowing other plants to become established.

2014/01/21: al Jazeera: India’s forest man
Lauded for growing an entire forest over thirty years, Jadav Payeng shows the way forward to afforestation. Thirty-four years ago when he began to plant trees, no one, including him, had the slightest idea that his effort would give birth to an entire forest. It all began with a dream he had in 1979 to plant trees on barren land for small animals and birds to build their homes on the tree tops. Chasing his dream, Jadav Payeng, then a young lad, belonging to the Mishing tribal community in Jorhat district, in the north eastern state of Assam, began to plant trees regularly. Decades later, the trees have transformed into a lush forest covering 55 hectares of land, home to wild elephants, tigers, rhinos and deer.

Aerosols affect the climate, but they also affect people’s health:

2014/01/21: BBC: EU air pollution target ‘still too high’ for heart health
A study confirming a link between atmospheric pollution and heart-attack risk strengthens the EU case for tougher clean-air targets, experts say. Research in the BMJ looking at long-term data for 100,000 people in five European countries found evidence of harm, even at permitted concentrations.

And other significant documents:

2014/01/22: EC: [links to several pdfs] Energy and climate goals for 2030
On 22 January 2014 the Commission proposed energy and climate objectives to be met by 2030. The objectives send a strong signal to the market, encouraging private investment in new pipelines and electricity networks or low-carbon technologies. The targets must be met if the EU is to keep its promise to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 80-95% by 2050.

As for miscellaneous science:

2014/01/23: ABC(Au): Ex-military spy drone to conduct NASA climate tests in Australian airspace
US space agency NASA is preparing to launch drone missions high in Australian skies during the next six weeks.
[…]
NASA announced that one of two ex-military Global Hawk it operates will conduct scientific missions from the US Pacific Island territory of Guam, “to track changes in the upper atmosphere and help researchers understand how these changes affect Earth’s climate”. NASA says scientists have installed 13 different instruments on the Global Hawks to capture air samples, and analyse clouds, gases and solar radiation for the Airborne Tropical Tropopause Experiment (ATTREX) flights.

The debate over the optimal strategy [carbon trading, carbon offsets, auction vs. allocation, cap and trade, cap and dividend, tradable energy quotas and/or a carbon tax] to use in dealing with GHGs continues:

2014/01/23: VoxEU: A fix for the climate (negotiations) by John Hassler & Per Krusell
The economic benefits and costs of mitigating global warming are widely debated. This column shows that based on current scientific knowledge and standard economic principles, a simple formula for the marginal damage of emissions can be constructed. The formula considerably strengthens the case for carbon taxation versus caps, allows straightforward calculation of the ‘global carbon debt’ rich nations owe to poor nations and future generations, and offers a yardstick for carbon capture and storage investments.

On the international political front, tensions continue as the empire leans on Iran:

Regarding the EU FQD: Fuel Quality Directive:

2014/01/24: EurActiv: European tar sands imports set for steep rise, US study says
A new study by the US Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) today (23 January) warns that imports of tar sands into Europe are likely to skyrocket if the block does not take measures.
Tar sands imports to Europe are set to rise dramatically, to over 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) by 2020, up from 4,000 bpd in 2012, according to the study. This, it says, would result in an emission increase in transport equivalent to six million additional cars on European roads.
The EU’s current Fuel Quality Directive (FQD) aims to reduce greenhouse gas intensity by 6% by 2020, but the NRDC report suggests that rising tar sands imports will lead to a 1.5% increase of greenhouse gas intensity.
Tar sands are considered 23% more carbon intensive than conventional oil, experts say. An EU review of the FQD currently underway will soon decide exactly what carbon intensity label should be applied to tar sands. But under a new climate package unveiled yesterday, the FQD’s writ will run out in 2020, a development that will please Canada.

2014/01/24: MacroBiz: US trade shocker [TPP] one step closer to reality
I have written previously about the risks posed to Australia’s sovereignty and consumer welfare from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). If the TPP goes ahead, it will establish a US-style regional regulatory framework that meets the demands of major US export industries, including pharmaceutical and digital. The draft chapter on intellectual property rights, revealed by WikiLeaks, included a “Christmas wishlist” for pharmaceutical companies, including the proposal to extend patent protection and strengthen monopolies on clinical data. As part of the deal, the US is reportedly seeking patents for “new forms” of known substances, as well as on new uses on old medicines – a proposal which would lead to “evergreening”, whereby patents can be renewed continuously. The pact poses a huge risk to Australia’s world class public health system, which faces cost blowouts via reduced access to cheaper generic drugs and reduced rights for the government to regulate medicine prices. It also risks stifling innovation in the event that patent terms are extended too far.

Regarding science education:

While in the UK:

2014/01/24: BBC: Somerset floods: ‘Major incident’ declared
A “major incident” has been declared in flooded areas in Somerset following warnings of further heavy rain. Many villagers are already cut off by floods and Sedgemoor District Council declared the major incident so it can mobilise extra support. The area’s MP said there was a risk of catastrophic flooding unless action was taken and he asked for government help. The village of Muchelney has been cut off for almost a month while roads around Langport are expected to flood.

2014/01/22: BBC: Flood funds gap ‘puts 250,000 homes at risk’
A quarter of a million more homes are expected to face significant flooding by 2035 because of a shortfall in funding, an independent committee says. The Committee on Climate Change’s (CCC) report says that government is not raising spending in line with projected changes in our climate.

2014/01/23: BBC: ‘Lame duck versus laggards’ in battle for EU climate future
The actions of a lame duck, said one critic. “Burnt out”, said another. The EU commissioners, who leave office in November, were never going to please everyone with their new goals on climate and energy policy unveiled in Brussels this week.
[…]
Under the new plan, there will no longer be binding renewables targets for individual countries. There will be a big effort made to revitalise the EU emissions trading scheme. Much to the delight of the UK, there will be minimal rules on shale gas fracking. But at the very least, the EU stuck with a solid 40% target for emissions reduction by 2030.

2014/01/22: EUO: EU proposes ‘affordable’ climate targets
The European Commission on Wednesday (22 January) proposed new greenhouse gas targets which it said would see the EU remain the global leader on climate change action, without damaging the bloc’s fragile economy. Under the proposals, the EU would curb its CO2 emissions by 40 percent – compared to 1990 levels – by 2030 and obtain “at least” 27 percent of its energy from renewable sources by the same year. Both figures were disputed until the last minute.

2014/01/22: BBC: EU outlines 2030 climate goals
The European Commission has outlined its plans for climate and energy policy until 2030. The Commissioners want a binding target to reduce carbon emissions by 40% from 1990 levels. Renewables will need to provide 27% of EU energy by 2030, but while the target will be binding at EU level there will be no mandatory targets for member states. The policy proposals are subject to review by heads of government.

Meanwhile in Australia:

2014/01/26: ABC(Au): Honoured researchers urge colleagues to fight anti-science
Australian honours Scientists need to fight against a growing anti-science sentiment worldwide by joining the debate, say two researchers acknowledged in today’s Australia Day Honours. Professors Bruce McKellar and Sam Berkovic, both associated with the University of Melbourne, received the nation’s highest honour when they were appointed Companions in the General Division of the Order of Australia.

2014/01/25: ABC(Au): Australia Day honours for solar pioneers
Two Australian scientists who have paved the way for solar thermal power plants worldwide have been honoured with Australia Day medals. A world powered by solar energy is inevitable according to two distinguished scientists being honoured this Australia Day. Dr Graham Morrison, Emeritus Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of New South Wales and Dr David Mills, formerly a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Sydney, have been awarded Member of the Order of Australia medals for their services to science in the field of applied physics, particularly in the research and development of renewable energy and solar thermal technologies.

2014/01/21: ABC(Au): Bushfire devastates olive grove
Farmers in the Grampians region are still taking stock of what the bushfire in their area will mean for production. Deirdre Baum owns an olive grove at Laharum, about 35 kilometres east of Horsham. While her house and restaurant were saved from the fire, she says almost all of her 11 000 olive trees were burnt.

2014/01/23: ABC(Au): Fast-tracking drought support decision?
Members of the Regional Assistance Advisory Committee on a tour of western NSW have been surprised by how bad the drought is in western NSW. Committee member Kym Turner told the ABC that the current situation is critical, in some cases worse than the millennium drought.

2014/01/22: ABC(Au): Drought meeting in the Marra
More than 20 people from the region attended a drought consultative meeting at The Marra Hall this week, meeting with the Regional Assistance Advisory Committee to discuss possible drought relief measures. Carinda grazier Peter McLelland says things are dire and his neighbours are hoping some help will be forthcoming, after the committee has reported its findings to the NSW Government.

And in Japan:

2014/01/21: BWeek: Hosokawa Targets Tokyo’s Clout in Japan Nuclear Debate
Former Japanese prime ministers Morihiro Hosokawa, center left, and Junichiro Koizumi, center right, speak to reporters in Tokyo on Jan. 14, 2013. Photographer: Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images More than two decades after a short-lived effort to shake up Japanese politics, Morihiro Hosokawa is taking another crack at a lasting legacy — with a bid to permanently shutter the nation’s nuclear reactors in a challenge to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Hosokawa, a 76-year-old former prime minister, today kicked off his campaign for the Feb. 9 election for governor of Tokyo, a city with a population topping 13 million and an economy bigger than that of Indonesia. Raising the profile of the race, Hosokawa is backed by Junichiro Koizumi, 72, a former premier and one-time Abe ally who now lobbies against nuclear power.

In Canada, neocon PM Harper, aka The Blight, pushes petroleum while ignoring the climate and ecology:

2014/01/23: CBC: Organic test results not sent for followup, CFIA admits
Test results of pesticide contamination not sent to organic certification bodies. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has yet to begin sending pesticide residue test results to organic food certification bodies for followup, despite repeatedly stating it does so, CBC News has learned. The CFIA repeatedly told CBC News in emails, documents and in a phone interview last month that it sent the test data to certification bodies so that they could investigate the source of contamination. The agency now concedes the data is still being analyzed and test results have not yet been sent to the certification bodies for followup.

The West-East pipeline is suddenly a focus of much dispute:

2014/01/20: TStar: All along the pipeline [east-west]
It has flowed quietly beneath our feet for nearly 40 years, carrying the oil used to power our lives. But a plan to reverse and increase the flow of oil in Line 9 has thrust the 30-inch pipeline into the spotlight, sparking fears of catastrophe, and promises of prosperity

And on the American political front:

2014/01/24: ColumbusDispatch: About 10,000 Ohioans lose food stamps
More than 10,000 poor Ohioans have lost food stamp benefits this month for failing to meet newly enforced work requirements. That’s 7 percent of the roughly 140,000 able-bodied adults ages 18 to 50 without dependent children who are now required to spend at least 20 hours a week working, training for a job, attending class or volunteering to receive assistance, according to figures provided by state officials. Human-services officials and advocates for the poor expect the number to increase sharply in February and the following months.

2014/01/23: TP:Econ: New York City Pantries Ran Out Of Food After Food Stamps Were Cut
After food stamps were reduced at the beginning of November, New York City food pantries and soup kitchens ran out of food, turned people away, and reduced the meals they handed out after experiencing a surge of demand, according to a new report from Food Bank For New York City. The organization surveyed 522 food pantries and 138 soup kitchens and found that in November 2013, nearly half had either run out of food altogether or the particular kinds of food they need to make adequate meals. About a quarter had to turn people away since they didn’t have enough food, and another quarter had to reduce the number of meals they provided.

2014/01/24: CNN: Huckabee’s ‘libido’ comment chilling for women
Cecile Richards: Mike Huckabee caused uproar with clueless comments about birth control
He said women told they need government “Uncle Sugar” to pay for their birth control
Richards: His words show political agenda to deny women contraceptive coverage
Richards: Birth control key in women’s lives, health. Next election, issue will be in balance

The impacts of the sequestration are starting to come home:

2014/01/23: NatureN: El Niño monitoring system in failure mode
US budget woes cripple a key mooring array in the tropical Pacific Ocean. An ocean-monitoring system that extends across the tropical Pacific is collapsing, depriving scientists of data on a region that influences global weather and climate trends. Nearly half of the moored buoys in the Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) array have failed in the last two years, crippling an early-warning system for the warming and cooling events in the eastern equatorial Pacific, known respectively as El Niño and La Niña. Scientists are now collecting data from just 40% of the array.
[…]
The array’s troubles began in 2012, when budget cuts pushed NOAA to retire a ship dedicated to performing the annual servicing that keeps the TAO buoys in working order.

2014/01/19: ColumbusDispatch: More water pollution can be blamed on coal
The chemical spill that contaminated water for hundreds of thousands in West Virginia was only the latest and most high-profile case of coal sullying the nation’s waters. For decades, chemicals and waste from the coal industry have tainted hundreds of waterways and groundwater supplies, spoiling private wells, shutting down fishing and rendering streams virtually lifeless, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal environmental data. But because these contaminants are released gradually and in some cases not tracked or regulated, they attract much-less attention than a massive spill.

Meanwhile among the ‘Sue the Bastards!’ contingent:

2014/01/23: Reuters: U.S. appeals court throws Arctic drilling into further doubt
Juneau, Alaska – A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that the U.S. Interior Department wrongly awarded offshore oil leases in the Chukchi Sea near Alaska in 2008 without considering the full range of environmental risks posed by drilling in the Arctic. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals shttp://www.noaa.gov/newsarchive.htmlent the on-going dispute – pitting environmental groups and Native Alaska tribes against the federal government and energy companies – back to U.S. District in Anchorage, Alaska. It was not immediately clear what the decision would mean for the oil company Royal Dutch Shell Plc and its plans, revealed in December, to resume exploratory drilling this coming summer in the Chukchi.

2014/01/22: BBerg: Koch Ends Plans for Pipeline to Illinois From Bakken
Koch Pipeline Co. called off plans to build a 250,000-barrel-a-day crude line to Illinois from North Dakota’s Bakken formation, where a shale boom has helped lift domestic production to the highest in a quarter-century. The indirect subsidiary of Koch Industries Inc., one of the largest private companies in the U.S., is no longer developing the so-called Dakota Express pipeline, Jake Reint, a Koch spokesman, said by e-mail yesterday. He didn’t provide a reason for the decision.

Yes we have a peak oil sighting:

The answer my friend…

2014/01/24: ABC(Au): Foundations poured for NSW biggest renewable energy project
Foundations have begun to be laid at the Monaro site in the New South Wales south east of what will become the State’s biggest wind farm project. Two of the foundations for the 67 wind turbines have been poured this week at Boco Rock, between Nimmitabel and Bombala. Wind Prospect Continental Wind Partners’ head of development, Ed Mounsey, says the first turbine should be in place later this year. He says the project will be fully operational by next February.

2014/01/23: NYT: Industry Awakens to Threat of Climate Change
Coca-Cola has always been more focused on its economic bottom line than on global warming, but when the company lost a lucrative operating license in India because of a serious water shortage there in 2004, things began to change. Today, after a decade of increasing damage to Coke’s balance sheet as global droughts dried up the water needed to produce its soda, the company has embraced the idea of climate change as an economically disruptive force.

A Simple Plea

Webmasters, web coders and content providers have mercy on your low bandwidth brethren. Because I am on dial-up, I am a text surfer — no images, no javascript and no flash. When you post a graphic, will you please use the alt text field … and when you embed a youtube/vimeo/flash video, please add some minimal description. Thank you.

<regards>

-hetP.S. Recent postings can be found in the week archive and the ancient postings can be accessed here, which should open to this.

“The worst thing that can happen during the 1980s is not energy depletion, economic collapse, limited nuclear war, or conquest by a totalitarian government. As terrible as these catastrophes would be for us, they can be repaired within a few generations. The one process ongoing in the 1980s that will take millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly that our descendents are least likely to forgive us.” -E.O. Wilson, 1985